Heretofore, there has been proposed a structure for a front portion of a vehicle body, including a dashboard panel extending in the width direction of the vehicle at the front of the passenger space, front pillars which extend vertically at the sides of the front of the passenger space, side sills extending toward the back of the vehicle from the lower ends of the front pillars, a dashboard cross-member which is provided to the dashboard panel and extends in the width direction of the vehicle, and a gusset member which links the front pillars and the side sills to the dashboard cross-member.
According to this structure for a front portion of a vehicle body, the front pillars and side sills are linked with the gusset member, thus rigidity of the corners of the front of the floor can be improved (e.g., see Japanese Patent No. 4,438,416).
Also, there has been proposed a structure for a front portion of a vehicle body, including a dashboard panel provided so as to provide a partition between the engine room of a vehicle and the passenger space thereof, a bracket provided below the dashboard panel on the passenger space side, with space ensured between the bracket and the dashboard panel, a carpet provided on the passenger space side of the bracket, and a footrest main unit provided on the rear face of the carpet, such that the carpet and footrest main unit can be moved toward the passenger space side when a front collision load acts upon the dashboard panel.
According to this structure for a front portion of a vehicle body, the carpet and footrest main unit can be moved toward the passenger space side when a head-on collision occurs, whereby load on the ankles of passengers can be reduced (e.g., see Japanese Patent No. 3,997,425).
With the structure for a front portion of a vehicle body according to Japanese Patent No. 4,438,416, rigidity of the corners of the front of the floor can be improved, but a narrow-offset collision load cannot be effectively transmitted to the side sill inner panel when the collision load acts on an area from the front corner toward the inner side in the width direction of the vehicle to the footrest portion of the dashboard lower panel where the footrest is provided. Note that the term “narrow offset collision” generally refers to a collision where a frontal collision is greatly offset to the right or left such that the frontal collision load acts on the outer portion located outer than the front side frame in the vehicle width direction.
With the structure for a front portion of a vehicle body according to Japanese Patent No. 3,997,425, space is insured between the dashboard panel (dashboard lower panel) and footrest main unit (footrest), so that load on the ankles of passengers can be reduced in the case of a front-end collision, deformation of the dashboard panel is allowed until the dashboard panel comes into contact with the bracket, and thus deformation of the footrest portion of the dashboard lower panel where the footrest is situated is not reduced. That is to say, the strength of the footrest portion is not proactively improved.